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EDITORIAL: And now in Trump World, a charity scandal

It says a lot about the state of affairs in Washington these days that a story about a charity operated by President Trump’s son allegedly ripping off kids and donors went largely ignored, thanks to James Comey Week.

EDITORIAL: And now in Trump World, a charity scandal

It says a lot about the state of affairs in Washington these days that a story about a charity operated by President Trump’s son allegedly ripping off kids and donors went largely ignored, thanks to James Comey Week.

But now that the former FBI director’s Senate testimony has passed — although leaving countless questions in its wake — it’s worth circling back and drawing more attention to reports that appear to expose what would at best be another example of unethical behavior within the Trump family businesses.

A Forbes magazine story documented how the eponymous foundation run by Trump’s son Eric redirected donations intended for the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center, a world leader in treating pediatric cancer, to the Trump Organization, ostensibly to cover rapidly rising expenses for an annual charity golf tournament. The foundation in recent years also began shifting some of the St. Jude’s donations to other charities with Trump ties, according to the report.

First, we should take a step back and acknowledge that the Eric Trump Foundation has done great work on behalf of a wonderful cause, having raised more than $16 million for St. Jude’s.

But that wouldn’t come close to excusing what the Forbes story suggests may have happened with some of the money that should also have gone to St. Jude’s.

The annual golf tourney has been held at one of President Trump’s own clubs in Westchester, New York, since 2007. Eric Trump has said the event is held essentially free of charge, with use of the course and other services almost entirely donated. In 2010, for instance, a relatively modest $46,000 was siphoned off for expenses — not exactly free, but not unreasonable. In the aftermath of the Forbes story an angry Eric Trump tweeted that he has raised millions for St. Jude’s with a less than 12.3 percent expense ratio — adding a snarky “What have you done today?!” That expense ratio is about half of what most charities pay in overhead costs.

What raises warning flags, however, is that those expenses for the golf tournament suddenly more than tripled to $142,000 in 2011, and after dropping back down to $59,000, skyrocketed to $230,000 in 2013 and as high as $322,000 in 2015 — the last year available. It’s not as if the tourney grew massively; a record $2 million was raised in 2012, a figure that hasn’t been matched since.

What happened? Tax returns offer little detail. Experts said the payments listed for 2013-2015 far exceed any reasonable expenses for a one-day charity golf event including about 200 players and perhaps twice that for dinner.

According to the Forbes report, what changed is that Donald Trump learned what was happening and wasn’t happy. Ian Gillule, a former marketing director at Trump National Westchester between 2006 and 2015, said Trump “:had a cow” and insisted “everyone gets billed.”

So how much in donations that should be helping terminally ill children has instead helped cover charity-event expenses for a mulit-billionaire? We don’t know. But based on all that we do know about Donald Trump during the decades that he has been in the public eye, his supposed disgust at not squeezing more out of his son’s foundation certainly rings true.

Also of concern is why Eric Trump Foundation money presumably earmarked for St. Jude’s suddenly started being redistributed to other favored charities of the future president. A key part of the policy shift may have resulted from management changes on the foundation’s board, which was once filled by personal friends of Eric Trump. In 2010 four of the original seven members left, and the board was overhauled and expanded with the introduction of more than a dozen people with strong links to the Trump Organization, according to the Forbes report.

Eric Trump’s reaction to all of this was predictably Trumpian. He ran for cover to a friendly face — in this case Fox’s Sean Hannity — and lashed out at critics, Democrats mostly, as subhuman and immoral. With no apparent sense of irony he complained Democrats have “become obstructionists because they have no message of their own.” That was the Republican position throughout the President Obama era.

Left unanswered, though, is why Eric Trump’s foundation suddenly stopped doing what he praised it for doing — delivering maximum bang for the donation buck by all but eliminating expense costs — and instead became more closely enmeshed with his father’s family store, taking money away from charity in the process?

We’d like to say the Trumps have a lot of explaining to do, especially considering the potential illegality involved if some of this activity is what it seems it could be. But considering President Trump won’t even release his own tax returns, we know that claims of innocence and bashing critics is about all we’ll get. We do, however, at the very least urge all of those generous donors who want to help St. Jude’s to find another way to get their money into the right hands without going through the Eric Trump Foundation.